Ladies, Mumbai is no longer safe

In less than 24 hours, three women who were home alone were targeted by criminals who seem to have a free run of the city.

78-year-old murdered in Malad house

Senior citizens continue to be easy targets in the city. A 78-year-old woman, who was alone at her Malad (West) residence, was murdered with her throat slit on Sunday. The police suspect robbery to be the motive as Rs35,000 and gold ornaments worth Rs2.5 lakh are missing from her house.

The deceased, Nirmala Vora, a resident of Nemani chawl at SV Road, had been staying there with her daughter, Chetana, 52, for four decades. Her husband died some years ago. Chetana is unmarried and runs a juice centre near Inorbit Mall. She leaves home by 11.30am and returns around 11.30pm.

“The incident came to light after Chetana returned home around 11.30pm and found her mother lying in a pool of blood. There was a deep cut on her neck and the main door was ajar,” said R Prabhu, police inspector at the Malad police station.

“Chetana informed the neighbours about the incident who then alerted the police. The body has been sent for post-mortem,” said another police officer.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that Vora was killed between 4pm and 6pm as the dinner prepared by her was left untouched. “She usually ate by 6pm (before sunset),” the officer said.

The police have registered a case of murder against unknown people and are questioning several others, including an employee at Chetana’s juice centre. “We found a knife at Vora’s residence which was used to murder her. Our sniffer dogs led us to Chetana’s juice centre. We are questioning Balram Jaiswal, 30, a domestic help who took care of Vora’s house and the juice centre,” Prabhu said.

Another officer said two people delivered sugarcane at Vora’s residence on Sunday which was to be transported to the juice centre. “We know who the two people are and we will question them soon,” he said.

Spaniard raped at knifepoint in Bandra flat

A Spanish woman in her late 20s was raped at knifepoint in her Bandra (West) home sometime between four and five on Monday morning.

Her attacker fled with her valuables as well. The woman told the police that the man entered her third-floor flat through an open window in the kitchen with the intention of robbery. Other flats in the seven-storey building have window grills.

“The victim was alone as her roommate is in Kerala for some work,” Vishwas Nangre-Patil, additional commissioner of police, said. “When the man was trying to flee with the valuables, the woman banged on her neighbour’s door asking for help. But they were not at home.”

In her police statement, the woman described the man as dark, in late 20s, of slim build, and a little over 5ft. He spoke in Hindi with a smattering of English. He kept demanding gold in English. l

The woman, who has been living in the city for the past two years, locked herself in the bathroom and started screaming for help when the man — after raping her — asked her to take a shower.

A neighbour said a fourth floor resident was one of the first to hear her cries for help and rushed downstairs. “By then the man had fled. But we could not convince her to come out of the bathroom... She was so terrified,” he said.

Other residents of the building had gathered in her flat by the time the police arrived. And the police had to break the door open to reach the woman.

An investigating officer said the crime branch is doing a parallel inquiry into the incident and that a sketch had been prepared based on the woman’s description of the man.

Nangre-Patil said eight teams were investigating the matter. A medical test at the Nagpada police hospital has confirmed rape. The police have picked up some criminals for questioning.

Rapist may have robbed 79-year-old too

A nurse staying with writer Dilip D’Souza’s 79-year-old mother Neela woke up to a strange sound around 2am on Monday, but went back to sleep assuming all was well. Little did she know that a robber had barged into the house from the kitchen window who fled with a mobile phone and purse with Rs6,000.

The police suspect the robber to be the same person who raped a Spanish national in Bandra between 4am and 5am the same day. He also unsuccessfully tried to rob a bungalow in the same vicinity before raping the foreign national.

The police said Neela was fast asleep when the robber entered her fourth-floor house in Amber building, Bandra (West). The nurse heard the sound of some belongings falling from her cupboard and wondered what was happening. She got up to check if everything was fine, but went back to sleep after failing to spot anyone in the house.

“I was supposed to leave for Bhopal in the morning and so, I had packed my bags and kept them ready in the living room. When I got up early in the morning, the bags were missing, but some of the things were lying on the floor. I later found some of the bags in the loft but they were opened as well,” Neela told DNA. “The nurse even heard a loud sound of something heavy falling out of the window which we now assume was the robber jumping into the neighbouring bungalow,” said Dilip.

The security guard of the bungalow was alerted by the barking dogs of the owner. “In fact, the guard even caught hold of the robber, but he managed to escape,” said another guard.